DEVELOPING SKILLS
By G. Mallikarjuna Rao

A Degree is not enough

You can't rely on your degree alone to automatically open doors after you graduate. It will certainly unlock doors - in other words it will make you eligible to apply for jobs that specify "must be a graduate” and the subject or class of your degree may also be important to certain employers. But however good your degree class, however relevant your subjects to the career that you'll be applying for, it is likely that you will be competing for this job with a number of other graduates who are equally well-qualified academically.

Once your degree has unlocked the door, you'll need the right mix of skills, abilities and personal qualities in order to turn the handle and give the door the push that will open it to you.

Making choices
 

Before doing this, of course, you need to have chosen the right door. Your degree subject and academic ability may well influence this choice, but your skills, values, interests and personality are likely to be just as important in making final decisions on your choice of career.

Nothing is certain
 

The world of work is in a state of continual change: a graduate’s career today may involve three or four quite distinct job functions and those job functions themselves are likely to change and develop during the years that a graduate is employed in them. Employers are therefore seeking graduates who are enterprising, resourceful and adaptable. While they ask for a degree as a general indication of a person’s learning ability, they are, in many cases, not recruiting graduates for their degree as such but for their personal skills: skills which can be used in a wide range of careers and also in other settings.

Think ahead

This doesn’t mean that you should cease to put any effort into your academic work, but it does mean that, in parallel with your studies, you should aim to develop skills that will be of help to you in your future career as such skills are sought by all kinds of employers. The skills you should be developing are the skills that reflect your own personality, interests and abilities - as these are the qualities that will influence your eventual choice of career.

Although we have been talking about skills as a part of the collection of qualities that go to make up you as an individual, this does not mean that these skills are as fixed as your height, or as difficult to change as the shape of your nose. Personal skills can be acquired, developed and improved without altering your essential personality. 

A shy person may be able to speak fluently and confidently when discussing a subject (e.g. politics; a favourite writer) which they know well and feel strongly about; somebody who considers themselves ‘hopeless at maths’ on the grounds of a low marks or grade may happily work out their living expenses for each term and evaluate the various loan options available. Your interests may also influence the skills that you choose to develop. 

Every one might have a short-list of skills that they wish to improve and they may also have noted down some ways by which it might be done. These could include some of the following:-

Through your course

e.g. - Investigating (preparing essays); Presenting Information (in seminars); Planning and Organising (revising for exams); Computer Skills.

Through extra-curricular activities

e.g. - Co-operating (in a sports team, organising a society event); Lateral Thinking (thinking of new things to do in a society, new ways to raise money during vacation); Written Communication (writing for the student newspaper); Listening (voluntary work with the elderly); Verbal Communication (chatting with friends!)

Through your home life

e.g. - Persuading (your parents to send you more money); Organisation and Planning (combining running a home with your studies if you're a mature student).

Through work experience

e.g. - Investigating (talking to people about their work); Decision Making (whether or not to pursue this career further)

And, perhaps most useful of all: Through vacation work

Almost any skill you care to name! Although, the skills utilised will depend on the job you do, even the seemingly least promising jobs can offer good opportunities to develop a variety of skills.

Students whoever work on vacation often say to that "I haven't done any real work - not anything that would be relevant to a career - just a bit of shop work, part-time work, and so on. I couldn't put anything like that on an application form". But what employers tell us is that they do value this type of work experience and wish that students would make more of it on their application forms!

Here are some of the skills that you might gain from shop, supermarket, etc., work:

·         Dealing with customers (courtesy, social confidence, tact)

·         Handling money (numeracy, integrity)

·         Working under pressure

·         Organisation & Planning (to meet peak demand)

As you can see, vacation work gives you great opportunities to acquire, develop and demonstrate the skills you need.

Does the need to plan for your future career seem quite so far away now?

EXAMPLES OF WAYS TO DEVELOP SKILLS

Here are some examples of ways you could develop skills or the sort of evidence you could give in an application to show you had these skills.

WRITING skills

·         Writing up a project or dissertation

·         Writing for the student newspaper

·         Writing a report for a course placement

SPEAKING skills

·         Joining a campus drama group.

·         Getting involved in a debating society.

·         Seminars

·         Working as a receptionist in a vacation job

INVESTIGATING skills

·         Researching for coursework in the library

·         Student journalism

·         Finding out about different careers through workshadowing

·         Market research interviewer in a vacation job

ANALYSING skills

·         Preparing Student Election Statistics

·         Analysing data from an experiment

·         Vacation job as a market research interviewer

·         Voluntary work for a publisher

PLANNING and ORGANISING skills

·         Organising your revision schedule

·         Planning a trip with friends

·         Stage manager for a play

·         Campsite representative

LEADERSHIP skills

·         Leading a group project

·         Chairing a student society

·         Captaining a sports team

·         Being a play scheme helper

NEGOTIATION skills

·         Negotiating the rent with your landlord

·         Negotiating the late handing in of essays

·         Staff-student liaison committee

·         Resolving an argument between friends

PERSUADING skills

·         Arguing your case in a seminar

·         Getting club members to turn up for events!

·         Fund-raising for a local charity

·         Telesales job in the vacation

CO-OPERATING skills

·         Working on a group project

·         Fund-raising

·         Team sports

·         Working as a clerical assistant in a busy office

LISTENING skills

·         In lectures!

·         Helping the student telephone counselling service

·         Working as a waiter or barmaid

DECISION-MAKING skills

·         Deciding which course/subjects to take next year

·         College Welfare Representative

·         Buying an expensive item (a car or computer)

·         Targeting appropriate customers in a sales job

NUMERACY

·         Working in a shop

·         Budgeting your expenses over the year

·         Interpreting a statistical table for your course 

"Academic qualifications are not our only important requirement. We will also expect you to have taken on positions of leadership and responsibility and show real ability to take initiative."